Analog display systems, in particular with hands, have been known and used for decades in a multitude of applications in order to procure a direct indication, for example on a graduated scale, a dial or another system for detecting a measuring value of a physical property such as speed, temperature, pressure, intensity, voltage or resistance, any item of information, or, and more likely, most commonly to measure time.
In the large majority of cases, the hands of a display device are made up of a rigid unitary body secured to a rotating staff moved by a movement, for example a clockwork movement in the case of a timepiece. With each rotational pitch of the rotating staff, the hand performs a corresponding rotation, at least one of its free ends describing a trajectory with a circular section thus pointing, in each of its positions on the circular trajectory, to information indicating a measured physical value, a time, or in general, any item of information to be indicated to a user. The indication is thus essentially done in the longitudinal axis of the hand at one and/or the other of its opposite ends in collaboration, if applicable, with an underlying display, for example a scale.
Generally known, in particular for clocks, are mechanical display systems, for example with pallet-stones, that indicate time information by aligning figures printed on the pallet-stones, the latter being pivoted around a staff by gravity during the release of blocking bolts at each time to be indicated.
Other alternative displays actuated by mechanical systems have also been proposed in the state of the art, essentially in the clockwork field. Examples include, among others, the digital display of the “pegboard” type of the Opus 8 model, marketed by the company Harry Winston SA, or the digital device for displaying the current hour by rotating a disc underlying a dial provided with an aperture as proposed in Swiss patent application CH 691833 A5.
These different displays all have the drawback of proceeding from a complex structure of various superimposed elements and requiring actuating mechanisms in addition to the basic clockwork mechanism, to which these actuating mechanisms are to be coupled, which disrupts the operation of the clockwork movement, or at the very least negatively affects its energy consumption.
To date, however, no display devices are known with a simple unitary structure allowing a direct digital display, if applicable without associated hands, provided with an animating capacity without disruptions of the primary display and indication function or actuating or animating mechanism complementary to the basic clockwork movement of the timepiece such as a watch or clock.